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I came across the much anticipated The Watchmen teaser, which is rumored to play before the Dark Knight. I have to say it looks great. But, as we all know, adaptations, whether they are based on novels or comic books, are rarely as good as the originals.

For those who have not read Alan Moore's groundbreaking graphic novel, The Watchmen was originally a twelve-issue limited series comic book released by DC Comics in 1986. It takes place in an alternate 1985 United States where superheroes are real though almost none of them have superpowers. Tensions between Russia and the U.S. are dangerously high and it's only a matter of time before a nuclear war erupts. When a fellow superhero is mysteriously murdered, those who fought beside him are forced to confront their own standards of ethics as well as their insecurities and personal issues. This was the beginning of the anti-hero archetype in comics and considered by many, not only a comic masterpiece but a literary one as well. It's Alan Moore at his finest.

It is the only comic book to win the prestigious Hugo Award as well as appear in Time Magazine's 2005 list of the "100 Best English Language Novels From 1923 to Present." The film is set to be released in early 2009 and is being directed by Zack Snyder, who adapted the Frank Miller graphic novel 300 for the big screen.

View the Watchmen teaser then leave a comment to let us know what you thought about it.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/

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Technorati Tags: Watchmen, movies, comics

Whatever happened to beatboxing?

I wondered this as I watched the music video "Wipeout" on YouTube while bored at work a couple of days ago. "Wipeout", for those who don't remember, was a Surfaris cover done by the Fat Boys and the Beach Boys back in 1987. It was horrible and rediculous.

As a twelve-year-old, I loved this video and hated it at the same time. I often tried to mimic the beatboxing mastered by Buffy, the Human Beatbox, arguably the fattest and most talented of the Fat Boys. I thought it was hilarious yet terribly sad and embarrassing to watch the Beach Boys, once considered geniuses for their 1966 masterpeice Pet Sounds to fall vicitim to such an obvious attempt at comeback fame. Of course, they did find brief success again a year later with their hit "Kokomo" for the Tom Cruise film Cocktail and continued to milk it for some time, unfortunately, by appearing on the television sitcom Full House with their buddy and sometimes bandmate John "Uncle Jessie" Stamos.

Wikipedia describes beatboxing as "...a form of vocal percussion connected with hip hop culture (it has been called the fifth element of hip hop) although it is not limited to hip hop music. It primarily involves the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and more. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments."

Modern beatboxing originated in the early 1980s, though various forms of it have been documented as far back as the 1930s with the arrival of bebop in jazz and blues music. Besides the Fat Boys, early rap artists such as Biz Markie, Barry B., and Doug E.Fresh, who is credited for being the first modern beatboxer, have all been influential in the lost art.

I remember how, for a brief moment in time, it seemed like everyone in the world either knew how to beatbox or knew someone who could. At school, there were always groups of kids who held beatboxing battles on the playground, in class and on the bus, using almost every part of their of mouths and hands to create the most distinctive sounds and beats.

As the 1980s came to a close, beatboxing began its gradual fade into obscurity as mainstream music made way for darker, more brooding music such as grunge and gangsta rap. And with the death of Buffy, the Human Beat Box in Decmber of 1995, it seemed that beatboxing died with him.

Surprisingly, beatboxing has made a dramatic comeback with the help of new beat box legends Rahzel and Kenny Muhammad. In 2005 the WBBF or World Beatboxing Federation was formed to unite beatboxers from all over the world in a grand effort to make beatboxing more popular than ever before.

For a complete history of beatboxing and to brush up on your skills, follow these links:

http://www.humanbeatbox.com/history/p2_articleid/38

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatboxing

Legendary comic George Carlin died yesterday at the age of 71.

According to CNN.com, Carlin died of heart failure at St.John's Health Center in Santa Monica at 5:55P.M. yesterday after complaining of chest pains upon arrival a short time earlier. He was known to have a history of heart problems.

Besides appearing in two Kevin Smith movies, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, as well as Bill and Ted's Excellent Journey and it's sequel, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, perhaps he was better known for his controversial form of comedy, often using an array of profanity while mocking life's hypocrisies and absurdity.

To read about George Carlin's profound effect in comedy as well as popular culture, please visit the following links:


http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1817192,00.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91791901

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/23/george-carlin-1937-2008/?iref=werecommend

Now that Riverbend 2008 has come to a close, I thought it would be appropriate to list my favorite Riverbend performances of all time. Because our Scenic City festival is not just about the music (actually, most of time the music seems to be the last thing they think about), I based my decisions not necessarily on the musical merits of these performers but on an array of varying factors depending on a particular time in my life, who I was with and...well...that's it.

To be fair, it seems Riverbend has become a bit more selective in the musical acts they bring to Chattanooga. In the past few years, the festival has boasted several talented, if not famous, bands such as the Black Crowes, Galactic (including members of Jurassic 5), the Everybodyfields, the Avett Brothers, Cracker, DJ Logic, and the Blind Boys of Alabama just to mention a few.

Now, without further ado, here are my top five Riverbend performances in no particular order:

5. ALLGOOD
I saw this Athens, Georgia band in the at one of the smaller tents at Riverbend. I had heard about them through a friend and bought their cassette EP, instantly hooked on all six songs, which was a combination of blues and southern rock with a jam band feel to them. Though I'm not typically a jam band fan, it was great driving music and I was in my late teens, which warrants some of the bad musical choices people tend to make; that, and it was the late 90s.

Though it was sticky hot and overcrowded, as Riverbend tends to be, it was not unbearable enough to miss this band. I, along with everyone else in the crowd, jammed along through each musical number until they played their epic masterpiece "Trilogy".

4. Roger McGuinn

Founding and only consistent member of the 1960s American band the Byrds, Roger McGuinn played under the Walnut Street Bridge during the 1995 Riverbend Festival. Armed with only a 12-string acoustic guitar, he played solo some of his best-loved Byrds hits including "Turn, Turn, Turn", "Mr. Tambourine Man" and if I remember correctly, "Eight Miles High". He told stories about his days with the Byrds and talked about his solo career. Not only was he amazing to watch on the guitar, he was personable and chatty with the audience. The low-key quality of this show was what made it so memorable and refreshing, especially since there was a throng of drunken, sweating, rednecks walking on the bridge just above us.


3. Chuck Berry

I don't remember who else played at Riverbend this particular year; I just remember being in awe of this rock 'n' roll legend.

2. Alex Chilton
The only reason I bought a Riverbend pin this ye ar was to see the legendary singer for Big Star. Unfortunately, I was 45 minutes late to the show due to bad planning on my part. But, even though I missed most of the show, I was able to see Chilton play four songs and though he had already pl ayed a few Big Star songs, he did a great cover of Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" and I was able to meet him and get his autograph at the end of the show. He lacked the high-energy performance he had in his youth, nonetheless, I was thrilled to see this music history cult icon.

1. Street Corner Jesus Guys
Every year without fail, these guys stands on the street corners of donwtown Chattanooga during Riverbend, holding up signs that banish literally everyone to Hell except themselves. For years, they have been one of the most popular acts there, especially during the Bessie Smith Strut, where most everyone there is drunk, high, or both. Continually heckled by passers-by with occasional half-eaten barbecue sandwiches and empty tall boys thrown at them, they valiantly stand at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and MLK Blvd., waving their signs and carrying large crosses to simulate the heavy wooden one that Jesus bore on his back. Funny, I don't remember Jesus' cross having wheels.

“Sorry mate, you’re out of the band.” That’s what Beatles manager Brian Epstein said to drummer Pete Best in 1962, right before the recording of their first originally-written single, “Love Me Do”. Pete was out, Ringo was in… it went something like that, anyway.

Attending the Pete Best show a week ago at Rhythm and Brews, in many ways, was a dream come true for me.

As a teenager, I was a Beatles fanatic. Ask anyone and they can tell you. Not only did I own all of their albums on cassette (not the Capital versions but their British counterpart Parlophone) but I devoured every book I could about the band and especially, it’s murdered genius, John Lennon as well. I had twenty-two Beatles posters lining my bedroom walls. I could answer any piece of trivia that was thrown at me and I had memorized every lyric of every song they ever wrote as well as their track listings on each album. They were the reason I started playing guitar. Yeah, I was a little obsessed.

History had all but forgotten Pete Best, the “cute” Beatles drummer that toured with the band through their now-legendary Hamburg, Germany phase, playing clubs like The Dresden and the All-Star Club.

Clad in their black leather jackets, black jeans, and greasy, slicked back hair, the Beatles were far from their clean-cut, mop-top image eventual manager Brian Epstein would plan for them, causing fans all over the world to fall in love with them. Theirs was a life of booze, pills, and whores.

The six to eight hour sets they played every night involved loud, fast, edgy guitar-driven music and hordes of drunken sailors, merchantmen, and easy women; all of this opened up a whole other world for the young lads, all under the age of 21. Then, as fast it came, Pete Best was replaced by Ringo Starr and the Beatles began their long journey into rock and roll history. Pete Best, for the most part, became a piece of pop culture trivia that became the stuff of legends.

To be honest, I didn’t expect much from the show. After all, he was kicked out of the band. According to Beatles producer George Martin, the guy couldn’t really keep a beat.

I was wrong. It was actually worse than I had expected. I knew the Pete Best Band would be playing mostly Beatles covers, or at least songs that the Beatles played around the time Pete was still in the band. I thought maybe there would be some songs Best had written on his own. Not so much. To make matters worse, he mainly stayed behind his drum kit and occasionally came out to the front of the stage to address the audience. Expecting old stories from his days with the Pre-Fab Four, stories that not many people knew except the people who were there at the time, I was sorely disappointed when the few words he spoke were to thank the audience for coming out to see him.

The other band members did more talking than he did and in fact, the ex-Beatle did no singing at all. I didn’t expect that he would but for someone who has a band named after him, I thought he would have taken a bigger part in its performance. I mean, there was another guy on drums next to Pete, which puzzled me, because the guy played the exact same thing he did. This only re-enforced the popular opinion that perhaps he really wasn’t such a good drummer after all. The show was entirely gimmick-driven to cash in on Beatles fame.

That said, do I have any regrets going? On the contrary. The band played some of my early Beatles favorites and in fact, sounded very reminiscent of how fast and raw the Beatles sounded before they gained worldwide fame. Not only did I get Pete Best’s autograph but I got my picture taken with him as well.

Even though I didn’t gain more of an insight into the mythology of the early Beatles’ career, I still got to shake the hand of the man who once knew John, George, and Paul intimately. Even if poor Pete Best was within an inch of becoming a household name, forged into the files of music history as part of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, he still left enough of a mark so that Beatles geeks like me could tell his kids that he once met one of the Beatles.

I have to be honest… I haven’t been to the Riverbend Festival in something like five years. Between the intolerable and sticky heat, the teeming mass of wall-to-wall drunk people, and that horrible smell of stale urine, sweat, beer and all things fried, I decided that it simply wasn’t worth the trouble anymore. But, when I heard that the Alex Chilton Trio and the Box Tops would be playing at this year’s Riverbend Festival, I was pleasantly surprised.

Oh, all right… I was as giddy as a schoolgirl. I mean, besides Roger McGuinn, I cannot remember the last time Riverbend has had someone as important, someone as cool, someone who has influnced a whole generation of artists as much as Alex Chilton. The man is literally a legend, forged into myth from the time he was twenty years-old by storming offstage in the middle of performing with the Box Tops because of creative differences with their record company.

For those of you who claim ignorance in the name of Chilton, who dare ask, “Why should I care about some has-been guy who my parents grew up listening to?” I humbly provide you with a brief lesson in rock music history. You say you’ve never heard of him or his music? I say you’re wrong.

Child Chilton and the Box Tops

Alex Chilton joined the Box Tops in the mid1960s at the age of sixteen. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, the band shot to stardom with their #1 international hit “The Letter”, with Alex singing lead vocals. Originally called the Devilles, the Box Tops had other hit songs including “Cry Like a Baby” in 1968 and “Soul Deep” in 1969.




I’m a Big Star Now

In the early 1970s, Chilton joined the band Big Star, named after a local grocery store with fellow musicians Chris Bell, Andy Hummel and Jody Stephens in Memphis. Though they failed to score any big hits at the time, the power-pop quartet did manage to garner critical acclaim with their first album #1 Record in 1972. Bell left the band, dissappointed by their lack of success and for a brief time, Big Star broke up. Eventually reuniting, the band released Radio City in 1974. Several years before their third album Third (later renamed Third/Sister Lovers in its 1992 re-release) was released in 1978, they had again broken up, this time for good. Chris Bell, who suffered from depression, was killed in a car crash the same year. Big Star eventually reformed in 1993 with original members Chilton and Stephens, along with Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies and released the album In Space in 2005.








Children by the Millions…

In the early 1980s, Alex moved to New Orleans after a brief solo career. He worked as a dishwasher and sat in with various bands. He eventually focused again on his solo career and fell in love with the smooth sounds of jazz, and rediscovered his early love of classic R&B.
Chilton now bides his time touring with his first band, the Box Tops, as well as his Alex Chilton Trio, recording and performing classic R&B covers such as “Never Found a Girl” and “Lipstick Traces.” You can see them on Thursday, June 12th on the Bud Light Stage at 7:45 p.m.

Along with his second band Big Star, Alex Chilton has influenced a number of famous musicians, including the Replacements, Jeff Buckley, Counting Crows, Susanna Hoffs, Wilco, Elliot Smith, R.E.M. and too many others to mention here.





If you want to learn more about this “man of myth”, just click on these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Chilton
http://bigstarband.com/index.html
http://www.lastcallrecords.com/biographies/alexchilton.html
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/alexchilton
http://www.frontlinearts.com/bigstar/
http://www.boxtops.com/